Office of the Attorney General of the State of South Carolina, January 3 (1996)

Attorney General Opinions | Office of the Attorney General of the State of South Carolina, January 3 (1996) | 2018

Question
Pursuant to section 20-7-780(B) of the Annotated Code of South Carolina, is the family of a surviving murder victim authorized to obtain from the South Carolina Board of Juvenile Parole current photographs of the offender for purposes of being able to recognize him by sight should he make contact with him?

Conclusion
Section 20-7-780 provides that all information contained in official juvenile records is confidential and may only be disclosed upon court order. Nonetheless, subsection (B) authorizes “basic descriptive information about the juvenile” to be released to the victim of a violent crime. Because a photograph was held to constitute a “description” in Commonwealth v. Ross, 152 A.2d 778, 783 (1959), and in Holmes v. Black River Electric Cooperation, 274 S.C. 252 (1980), it falls within the provisions of subsection (B). Therefore, a photograph of a juvenile offender may be released to the family of a murder victim because a photograph constitutes “basic descriptive information.”